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Old 05-20-2005, 02:40 AM   #26
Bronson
 
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Dojo: Seiwa Dojo and Southside Dojo
Location: Battle Creek & Kalamazoo, MI
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

From on of my first instructors: "When I look back on my life I can see that most of the problems I've had were because of my pride and ego."

From the other of my first instructors: "You don't have to move faster you have to move righter."

From a conversation with my Sensei after my last promotion:

Me: I'm not sure if I feel ready to handle the responsibilities that come with promotion.

Sensei: That's how I felt after all of mine.

Bronson

"A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence."
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Old 05-20-2005, 04:37 AM   #27
Pauliina Lievonen
 
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

When I was going to give up and stop one hour before the end of the second day of a weekend seminar: "You're not injured, or ill. There's nothing wrong with you, you're just tired."

Then I had a little cry, and continued training. I didn't die.
kvaak
Pauliina
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Old 05-20-2005, 05:50 AM   #28
Nick Simpson
Dojo: White Rose Aikido - Durham University
Location: Gateshead
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

About the upside down bokken, when I uked for Steven Mullen a few month back on his 3rd kyu test he had to do happo-giri (eight way cut) to finish off with. So off he goes, picks up a jo, bows to it and the panel and proceeds to do happo-giri with it. As he finishes Sensei Riley says:

"Well done Steve, but isnt happo-giri supposed to be done with a bokken?"

Steve then looks down at the jo in his hand and recoils in shock as if he only just noticed it!

Im aways going to remember that fondly

They're all screaming about the rock n roll, but I would say that it's getting old. - REFUSED.
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Old 05-20-2005, 06:07 AM   #29
Devin McDowell
Dojo: RA Centre
Location: Ottawa
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Canada
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

On practicing with tanbos:

"Don't block with your head"
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Old 05-20-2005, 07:16 AM   #30
Jonathan Thielen
 
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Dojo: Greensboro Kodokan Aikido Dojo
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

Great posts, everyone! Thanks for sharing.
Jonathan
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Old 05-24-2005, 12:50 PM   #31
Kevin Kelly
Dojo: Aikido of Reno
Location: Fernley, NV
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

Quote:
James Matarrese wrote:
*breaks down laughing* Same thing happened to me! Actually, mine was upside-down and backwards... I keep asking myself almost 7 months later how I did that...
Yeah, but I did it twice...
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Old 05-25-2005, 01:16 PM   #32
beanchild
Dojo: Aikido Academy, Columbia, SC
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

-->move first, technique second
-->speed will come later
-->be the uke everyone wants to work with, not the uke no one wants to work with

all three have proved extremely helpful, and i know they'll continue to be useful
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Old 05-25-2005, 04:03 PM   #33
samurai_kenshin
 
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

Quote:
Kevin Kelly wrote:
Yeah, but I did it twice...
*laughter becomes too much to bear* on monday someone tried to load me for...um...I think it's kaishi waza. He did it too fast and I ended up doing a (very bad) imitation of a hi fall. Sensei almost died laughing, then showed me a video after class of her doing exactly the same thing when she was my age. The touching quote: "In 30 plus years, you too can be great!"

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
-Barry LePatner
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Old 05-25-2005, 06:12 PM   #34
MaryKaye
Dojo: Seattle Ki Society
Location: Seattle
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

Mary Heiny sensei, at a seminar:

In order to do this well you're going to have to try a lot of things that won't work. You might as well get started, because it only gets more embarrasing as you go up in rank.

Somebody or other, in their blog:

Aikido is like, someone hands you a feather and tells you that not only can you pound nails with it, it'll work better than a hammer.

Mary Kaye
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Old 05-26-2005, 01:27 AM   #35
Tim Gerrard
 
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Dojo: White Rose Aikikai - Durham
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

Quote:
James Matarreseage wrote:
The touching quote: "In 30 plus years, you too can be great!"
In one class during randori, tried to perform a technique which involves taking uke's hip with your centre as a shomen strike comes down. Messed up, Sensei was heard saying "Maybe in 30 years..."

Why is it always thirty years? I don't think I'll live that long.....


Aikido doesn't work? My Aikido works, what on earth are you practicing?!
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Old 05-26-2005, 01:56 AM   #36
Thomas Ambrose
 
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

While doing Ikkyo or something during my second or third month...

Me: It feels off, I think I am doing something wrong.
Sempai: Of course you are doing it wrong, Thomas. You are a beginner!

(Still feels true six months later, probably still will six months from now, and again...)
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Old 05-26-2005, 03:38 AM   #37
Paul Kerr
 
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

I started aikido in 1989 at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo. After about three weeks of practice I remember Miyamoto sensei was assisting Okumura sensei and we were practising ai-hanmi nikkyo. Miyamoto came round everyone helping. My turn. I'm on the floor getting pinned by him and I start tapping out like crazy. I mean, the nikkyo itself was a blinder and now this pin has me totally splatted. I hear Miyamoto in my ear - "You tap too soon. You must learn to like this feeling."
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Old 05-26-2005, 09:13 AM   #38
Jeremy Young
Dojo: Tatsumaki Dojo/Springdale, AR
Location: Springdale,AR
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

somthing my instructor said to me while explaining the importance of whole body movement during the execution of a techinque was...
"how can you expect to move the other guy if you can not move yourself???"
This is something that always stayed with me.
Now if i could just move myself!!
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Old 05-26-2005, 09:35 AM   #39
Kyudos
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

All in a similar vein....

"Evade - Control - Technique"

"If you don't evade, you can't control. If you can't control, you won't have a technique."

"Control starts with evasion, technique starts with control."
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Old 05-26-2005, 03:24 PM   #40
Jack Simpson
Dojo: Western Maryland Aikikai - Frederick, Maryland
Location: hangin' with the tengu in the "mountains" of Maryland
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

"in Aikido you can always choose your partner".

In other words, if you're training with someone dangerous or out of control, simply bow out and find a new training partner. That has saved me many times.

Jack
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Old 06-02-2005, 05:39 AM   #41
daniel loughlin
Dojo: Oldham
Location: Manchester
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

This made me laugh so much when it happened.as sensei was demonstrating a technique with me attacking from behind holding under the arms he acussed me of hugging him and made me attack again.

And the first time i did weapons training and held my bokkken a little low sensei said are you fighting midgets?? fun times hehe

Danny Loughlin
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Old 06-02-2005, 05:53 AM   #42
Nick Simpson
Dojo: White Rose Aikido - Durham University
Location: Gateshead
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

"You tap too soon. You must learn to like this feeling."

Much love for this statement.

They're all screaming about the rock n roll, but I would say that it's getting old. - REFUSED.
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Old 06-02-2005, 11:13 AM   #43
jss
Location: Rotterdam
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

You're trying too hard.
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Old 06-02-2005, 01:43 PM   #44
malsmith
Dojo: Masters of Aikido in Fogelsville
Location: Bethlehem
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

one sensei was demonstrating a ki strike on another sensei and then asked him to describe what he felt during the strike... and the sensei said "it was all... like... (he looked like he was thinking hard) ... bedump"
after he said it he just started laughing at himself realizing how ridiculous it sounded.
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Old 06-02-2005, 01:49 PM   #45
Yo-Jimbo
Dojo: formerly Windward Aikido, formerly at Keewenaw Schools of Aikido (ASU)
Location: Formerly Hawaii Pacific University, formerly at Michigan Technological University
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

Perhaps ten or so years ago, the tip of my bokken was pressed just below his sternum and his bokken came screaming to a halt at my neck. On which he commented, "Now we are both dead. What did that prove?"

"One does not find wisdom in another's words." -James D. Chye
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Old 06-04-2005, 05:11 AM   #46
daniel loughlin
Dojo: Oldham
Location: Manchester
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

you see i even teach you how to walk here

Danny Loughlin
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Old 06-04-2005, 06:11 AM   #47
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Dojo: Hiroshima Kokusai Dojo
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

"Peter, You must become like a cat."

P A Goldsbury
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Kokusai Dojo,
Hiroshima,
Japan
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Old 06-04-2005, 02:42 PM   #48
Paul Sanderson-Cimino
Dojo: Yoshokai; looking into judo
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

So many things to recount! I'll try to mention a few.

ON SEIZA
Kushida-sensei sometimes gives very long lectures, during which we of course sit in seiza. My first time, I became very sore (probably from squirming a bit) and so bowed into anza. Later at dinner, I explained to my sempai, James, that I did this because I figured it would be disrespectful to subject myself to so much discomfort that I could no longer focus on Kushida-sensei's words. James paused, and politely remarked, "Actually, I remember he once said, 'If it hurts so much you can't hear me, is okay. Is good training."

ON BEING SLOW
It took me a very long time to learn forward and backward rolls. James and Stephen (sempai) both worked with me quite a bit. I remember at one point commenting on this. I think it was Stephen who said, "Well, look at it this way. You're picking up so many tips from this, that you'll be able to teach anyone later on."

Last edited by Paul Sanderson-Cimino : 06-04-2005 at 02:42 PM. Reason: er, anza, not zazen
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Old 06-07-2005, 01:35 PM   #49
rob_liberti
Dojo: Shobu Aikido of Connecticut
Location: East Haven, CT
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

I was told "You work very hard. Your mother must be very proud of you." I was sweating and the teacher was bone dry.

Later I was told "You are my most skillful student - unfortunately for you, aikido has nothing to do with that kind of skill."

They were proud moments...

Rob
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Old 06-07-2005, 02:08 PM   #50
Ron Tisdale
Dojo: Doshinkan dojo in Roxborough, Pa
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Re: Sempai comments that stick with you...

It wasn't a statement. It was a technique. We were doing katate mochi sokumen iriminage in class and I just didn't get the point. So I asked a sempai to do the technique to me so that I could understand it. When I woke up, he was staring down at me asking if I was ok...

Ron (fondly remembering his first concussion in aikido)

Ron Tisdale
-----------------------
"The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind."
St. Bonaventure (ca. 1221-1274)
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